In 2019, Missouri native Kayleigh Amstutz celebrated her 21st birthday at The Abbey, a Los Angeles gay bar where she experienced, in her words, what it was like to belong.
A year later, Amstutz (professionally known as Chappell Roan) released her single “Pink Pony Club” inspired by that transformative night spent dancing her a** off without a drop of alcohol in her system, and thus began something new and sparkly and different compared to her past tracks. What followed was a music video featuring the artist herself in her glitteriest cowgirl getup, dancing with leather daddies and rough & tumble bikers in a dive bar drenched in bright spotlights. The song has since found a place for itself amongst other queer anthems of similar cult-like status.
After releasing two other singles in 2020 and subsequently getting dropped from Atlantic Records, Roan refrained from releasing new music until 2022, where she dropped four fresh tracks throughout the year. “Naked in Manhattan,” “My Kink is Karma,” “Femininonemon,” and “Casual” popped up here and there last year, and it became clear that Roan was going to carry on with the “Pink Pony Club” legacy and maintain her slumber party pop sound.
Now, Chappell Roan markets herself as a “thrift store pop star” which she’s stayed true to even with her steady rise to fame with her back-to-back hit singles slowly falling further into virality. Her vibrant Instagram presence and constant engagement with her audience is reminiscent of that girl that befriends you in the bar bathroom, who fixes up your hair and makes you feel like the coolest person in the room. Roan has created this special space in the world of rising pop where anyone can feel like they’re made of glitter.
Her character isn’t the only aspect of Roan that provides this comfort, but also the various themes within her recently released tracks. She sings of a casual hookup turned unlabeled relationship in “Casual”, figuring out your sexuality in the hyper-specific lyrics of “Naked in Manhattan,” and how seeing an ex getting their comeuppance is a real turn on in “My Kink is Karma”. Perhaps not every single Chappell Roan track is entirely relatable, but she presents them in a way that feels familiar, something that is universally experienced.
It’s in “Femininonemon” (with a title that’s already a mouth full) where the lyrics get a little less coherent, where an exact theme is hard to disentangle. But what it brings to the table is a conglomerate of a perfect club beat, lyrics worthy of a drag performance, and even the revving of a dirt bike before the catchy chorus. Roan herself said she wanted a dance song, and she’s perfectly crafted that with this glimmering track worthy of a proper gay club debut.
I believe that “Femininonemon” encapsulates Chappell Roan’s aesthetic, and is the reason so many people are drawn to her. She knows how to weave sad lyrics into a dance beat, making even the most heartbreaking scenarios flip upside down and inside out. I listen to her music, and though some of her lyrics incite sadness, I find that I just can’t help but dance.
What Chappell Roan has released so far is so different from other pop artists. She’s created her own femininonemon with the songs she’s released, and I can’t wait to see what else she has in store—especially with her first headline tour starting just next week. What’s clear already, even without a complete album released yet, is that she’s already on her way to becoming one of the brightest stars in the current tumultuous pool of pop artists.